The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced a major restructuring today, consolidating multiple agencies into a new Administration for Healthy America (AHA) and reducing its workforce by 10,000 positions.
The department said the plan aims to streamline operations and improve efficiency. While this restructuring is intended to enhance effectiveness, it could have significant implications for agencies responsible for food safety, potentially impacting their staffing and capacity to monitor and regulate foodborne health risks. In a video statement posted on X, HHS Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr. said the department’s budget and staffing had grown significantly in recent years without corresponding improvements in public health. “Over the past four years, HHS has increased by 38 percent, and its staffing increased by 17 percent, but all that money has failed to improve the health of Americans,” Kennedy said.
“In fact, the rate of chronic disease and cancer increased dramatically as our department has grown.” HHS stated that the restructuring will consolidate 28 divisions into 15, merging agencies such as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry into the newly created AHA. “We’re going to streamline HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective,” Kennedy said.
“We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functio.
